February 20, 2018

Exit Wellington Coordinator Found Not Guilty Assisted Suicide

Press Release

In Wellington’s High Court today, Exit International Coordinator Suzy Austen, has been found not guilty of assisting in the June 2016 suicide of fellow Exit International member, Annemarie Treadwell. She has been found guilty of 2 of 3 charges of importing Nembutal.

The two week trial heard from 30+ crown witnesses who documented everything from the mechanics of covert customs searches of incoming luggage, the inspection and testing of controlled drugs, secret police bugging of Suzy’s Lower Hutt home and the monitoring of Exit meetings and emails, as well as fake police alcohol testing roadblocks designed to gather case intelligence.

Philip Nitschke, Suzy Austen & Tom Curran shortly before the verdict

Exit is ecstatic that Suzy Austen has been found not guilty of the main charge!!!!

Speaking outside court in Wellington after the verdict, Exit International founder and director, Dr Philip Nitschke, said ‘the case should never have gone ahead. This has been a race to the bottom in the misuse of public funds’.

‘We heard in this trial that of the 54 importations of Nembutal that have been intercepted by New Zealand customs in the past decade, only one instance had been referred to the Police.

This is Suzy’s case.

‘The discretionary use of police powers to pursue charges against Exit and Suzy Austen make a mockery of the founding concept of equal treatment before the law. Yet this is one of the corner stones of a modern liberal democracy such as New Zealand.

‘There is no doubt that Exit has been clearly in the crosshairs of the NZ authorities as they have gone about this case’ he said.

‘The irony is that the youthful NZ Police force seem unable to stomach or understand the idea that elderly New Zealanders want control over their death, just as they have had control over their life.

‘And that this control does not involve doctors.

‘If there is any law change by the New Zealand Parliament it should be a shift towards the Swiss model of decriminalising suicide assistance.

‘A peaceful death is not simply for the terminally ill, it is a human right that should be afforded to every rational adult, regardless of their state of health.

Exit supporters outside court during the trial

In the Netherlands where Dr Nitschke now lives, the end of life choices debate is about whether or not all over 70s should be issued with lethal drugs with old age, rather than degree of illness, being the determining criteria.

‘Elderly people want lethal drugs in the cupboard as their insurance policy for the future.

‘This is the social need that the New Zealand Parliament should be focusing upon.